From weekslong wildfires in Los Angeles, California, to unprecedented flooding in Asheville, North Carolina, extreme weather events bring profound personal and economic costs. As losses from these disasters rise, property insurers are reducing coverage, exiting high-risk markets, and dramatically raising premiums. For many households, home insurance is unavailable or unaffordable, leaving them vulnerable to future disasters. Diminished insurance coverage has far-reaching consequences: It presents a barrier to homeownership, strains state and local capacity to provide critical services, disrupts mortgage markets, and poses risks to the financial system more broadly.
Absent sufficient insurance coverage, governments are taking steps to fill in the gaps and spread the costs of climate change disasters through other mechanisms. More must be done to improve these and other programs. In designing these risk spreading programs, policymakers will face complex and, at times, competing priorities and confront questions including: How can public programs discourage rebuilding in risky areas? Does subsidizing the cost of insurance provide short-term relief at the expense of longer-term resilience building? How can aid to communities be delivered in an equitable manner?
Please join the Center for American Progress for a virtual event with opening remarks from U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and a panel of experts who will discuss these interconnected issues and potential solutions.
This event builds off CAP’s recent report, “Managing the Climate Change-Fueled Property Insurance Crisis.”
